Bahrain GP: Felipe Massa preview

Felipe Massa: "I've not given up hope"
Dubai, 21th April 2009 - The days of putting my thoughts down after each
race and talking about winning and being on the podium seem to be a long
time ago at the moment and honestly, going over each race is...

Felipe Massa: "I've not given up hope"

Dubai, 21th April 2009 - The days of putting my thoughts down after each
race and talking about winning and being on the podium seem to be a long
time ago at the moment and honestly, going over each race is currently more
of a pain than a pleasure. But I've not given up hope and there were some
bright moments in a very dark and wet Chinese weekend.

In Shanghai, we still were not competitive enough and we had also taken the
decision to run without KERS which could have been more of a handicap, but
in the rain on Sunday, we were very strong. I was able to make up several
places and I was running at a pace similar to the guys at the front of the
field. That was the plus side, but on the minus side, reliability let us
down again and I was unable to finish the race. Back at the factory, we
continue to push very hard to overcome these reliability problems. The
electrical fault that forced me to stop at the side of the track was, once
again, a failure we had never seen before. It has to be said that luck
doesn't seem to be on our side at the moment, as it was a very small and
stupid problem that made the car stop, because it was simply a faulty
reading within the on board data that indicated to the control unit that the
throttle should be shut down. So, even though there was actually nothing
wrong, the car's computer decided to shut down the throttle and I had to
park it.

After Malaysia, we restructured the race team, with Chris Dyer, our head of
race engineering, taking on more responsibility trackside and in China this
worked well. Chris is very calm and patient when it comes to making
decisions. Although, in reality, once we had decided I was on a one-stop
strategy for the race, there were not that many decisions to make on my car.
So, it is too early to say how the new organisation will work out and we
must wait and see what happens in more complex race situations. I am sure
Chris will do a good job.

Because of problems in Malaysia, we opted not to use the KERS and, given
that we had a wet race, this had less of a negative impact on our
performance than if it had been dry. But, even in the rain, KERS could have
been useful down the straights. At the time of writing, I am not entirely
sure whether or not we will have it in Bahrain. Back in the factory, a great
deal of work has gone into working on the system since the race in Sepang,
so I am hopeful it can help us in this race.

Currently, I am in Dubai, and tomorrow, I am making a stop in Abu Dhabi,
attending events for Mubadala and Etihad, before arriving in Bahrain on
Wednesday night. I have always gone well at the Sakhir circuit, winning for
the last two years, so I hope this is a good sign. In more practical terms,
we tested here during the winter and the car was not too bad to be honest
and the tyres seemed to suit the package we have. I really do expect to be
more competitive, especially if we have KERS, as it should be a significant
advantage at this track. I hope that finally we can make life difficult for
the other teams and fight for a very good result. I am very motivated,
despite the difficult times until now. But change must come and hopefully
that will start this weekend. It should be much hotter than we are used to
here, but I don't think that should be a problem to deal with.